“Pages 103 and 104: Clinton and Ron Burkle, the supermarket magnate, have been buddies since 1992. Felsenthal repeats the old rumor that “Burkle and Clinton are … partners in philandering.” She also quotes an unnamed source alleging that “Burkle and Clinton spend time together doing things that Hillary would not want made public” and reports that Burkle calls his private plane “Fuck Jet.”

Page 109: In addition to Burkle, Clinton spends much of his downtime with Miami businessman Philip Levine, billionaire money manager Jeffrey Epstein, and movie producer Stephen Bing. An unnamed source told Felsenthal, “Stephen Bing epitomizes that crowd. Clinton’s still very much a skirt chaser and these guys in Hollywood are movers and shakers. Stephen Bing [is a] rich, young guy on the loose with power … who is bedding every broad. … That really appeals to Clinton.”"

… and I’ll bet that, unlike Hillary, Obama doesn’t even bring this up.

Obama might possibly have made a better effort at massaging Rev Wright, and trying to impress upon him the import of his candidacy … though who knows, maybe he did try. Seems like maybe Obama could have kept better contact there after the first Wright media storm. On the other hand, it’s one of those damned if you do, damned oif you don’t kind of things - maintain contact, and the press goes, “See, Obama’s still consulting with his crazy preacher! Be afraid! Be afraid of the angry black men!”

I say all this only as comments on the politics of this thing. In terms of actual ideas, I mostly like Rev Wright, and he seems like a character! But one can’t run for president on a Jeremiah Wright platform, which is why Obama ultimately just had to denounce him and establish a clear separation.

And yes, I think Hillary’s various political faux pas are equally as damaging (can we picture war-hero McCain ridiculing her Bosnia statements?) Not to mention - she voted for the f***ing war, which appears to me to be the great divide between the Clinton and Obama supporters. As far as I can see, folks who marched against the war are very much more likely to be Obama supporters.

and the ayer thing is simply not getting the air time that the wright thing is, so i don’t think that comparison is valid. ayer is only a big deal to the rightwing nuts. wright brands obama with the “angry black man” image that he’s been trying to avoid.

it’s not about “is realizing” it’s about “realized”, past tense. while obama did eventually realize that full potential after the media went bananas with the wright thing, i also think he did not realize the full circus potential of wright before the story got blown out of proportion. that’s what i mean by “blindness” above. i think obama had a personal relationship with wright and that his friendship with the guy clouded his judgment over how his remarks might be viewed from outside the southside church environment.

we all lose perspective when it comes to our friends. which is why i don’t think this kerfuffle shows that obama is not a savvy politician. i think he is, he just has blind spots like the rest of us.

I shine a light on simiar-topiced examples of hrc conduct that makes whatever attempt on OB pale…do I think OB is realizing the full potential affect of wright to his campaign? yes and perfectly so. He is not making a huge deal of it because it is not a huge deal in the question of who makes a better candidate. I held up the bosnian lie as an effort to compare what actually is an an example of a liability to a candidates campaign and to attempt to show how hrc conduct is largely ignored on this site. the entire wright issue is an attempt to label OB as an angry black man or to have angry black friends - it is pure racism.

i think that it doesn’t, for the reasons i wrote above. but chucking a bunch of “yeah but hillary clinton sux!!!!” crap into the comments just makes it seem like you’re trying to avoid the question. it reminds me of when i was posting at my place about the bush administrations wiretapping policy in violation of FISA and rather than defending the legality of bush, my trolls just kept telling me that president clinton did worse stuff. maybe it seemed relevant to them, but to me it looked like they couldn’t answer the question about president bush and were trying to change the subject.

Like hrc failing to see that blatantly lying over and over again about her bosnian sniper-fire welcoming committee would be a political problem?? she tries to use wright to paint OB as an angry black man but she failed to see the use of her own words to drive up the dishonesty-negatives numbers…I see more of a moral failure in outright and boldface lying to her supporters, voters and american citizens than what someone’s preacher and friend says…